10 wistful quotes by Rumi

Few can make longing, love, kindness sound as appealing as Rumi. The 13-century Sufi scholar and poet could weave magic with his words and the fact that his words have lost one of their sheen and relevance after all these years is telling in itself.

Rumi’s opinion on love may be varied but they are seldom different. (Designed by Nidhi Sharma/The Indian Express)

Few can make longing, love, kindness sound as appealing as Rumi. Although widely known as Rumi, the 13-century Sufi scholar and poet’s original name is Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi. He could weave magic with his words and the fact that his words have lost none of their sheen and relevance after all these years is telling in itself. Greatly inspired by Persian poet Shams Tabrizi, Rumi has written on self-love, on loving others, on kindness and the need to seek within oneself for love and not outside.

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On grief, he wrote, “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form,” while on love his opinions have been varied but seldom different. You do not find love, love finds you. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it,” the poet writes And in another instance he writes, “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along”.

He also has words of kindness for all the time you feel fettered in life. “You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?” he asks. Or other times, he says, “My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”

His words provide comfort, reassurance and ultimately some solace. His fame has transcended generations, cultures and boundaries and even today one tends to go back to them.

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Rumi’s words not only reassure but also provide comfort. (Designed by Nidhi Sharma/The Indian Express)

Rumi’s words tell you to seek within and not outside. (Designed by Nidhi Sharma/The Indian Express)

When in doubt, you can always go back to Rumi’s words. (Designed by Nidhi Sharma/The Indian Express)

Rumi’s words make you wiser. They do. (Designed by Nidhi Sharma/The Indian Express)